Pull ups were OK for the first 5, but then on rep 6 my rotator lost its stabilising ability and i had to stop and switch back to Lat pulldown. this is still a great improvement as last time I tried them i could not do one due to the shoulder not wanting to play.

Sat/Sun

Rest- encouragingly, although my shoulder gave out on me the day before, there was no 'bad' soreness in the capsule today

Keeping with a weight i could do no more than 12 with, I only allowed 30 seconds rest between sets, the idea being to focus on recovery abilities rather than maximal workload per set. By the final set of each exercise I burned out at around 7 reps. the whole workout took just under 30 minutes for 27 sets to failure. Pumped and gassed

Went in on Friday, December 15, 2006 for 8:00 AM. They rolled me the the prep room at 8:45 AM. Doctor came to check me out. The anesthetic doctor came and checked me out and I told him I had problems getting sick afterwards plus didn't like going under and said would take care of me. Rolled me in at around 9:40 AM. Got my IV in my forearm (usually hand) and I was out in seconds which was the best I've ever gone under. I woke at 11:20 AM as they rolled me into recovery and they were surprised I was awake. I talked with them and they said I probably would not remember this but I told them that I was almost totally awake and I would for sure. They got me to my semi-private room (good insurance from work) at 1:00 PM which turned out to be private because I didn't have a room-mate. The freezing in my knee was to last 8 hours and they said then would continue to check on me so that when it came out they would be ready to give me drugs. After freezing out I had no pain. They came continually Friday afternoon and night to check on me and I still didn't have any pain. Saturday came and still no pain and I had to get up 4 times to go to the bathroom and I walked without crutches. They couldn't believe I had no pain and was walking without crutches. Saturday they came and taught me how to walk on crutches and then released me and I was home by 1:00 PM.

All of Saturday no pain. I should mention I had not slept since waking up in recovery and stayed up Saturday night and did not go to sleep until Sunday night. Sunday night my knee hurt like hell. It was pain so I started taking the pain medication they gave me and it did not work at all. By Monday pain would have been fine but I was beyond that point but thankfully my wife's mother was a retired nurse and her father has recently gone through a hip replacement a few months back so still had pain medication that did work but it knocked me out bad. I was in bed Sunday night through all of Tuesday in a drug induced pain. Wednesday wasn't a bad day as my wife had gone to my GP the day before and got me new medication that allowed me to think clearly and get myself up out of bed. Wednesday night while sleeping I jerked my leg really bad and woke up screaming in pain and thought for sure I had retorn it ... that was pain ... very bad pain. During the days with my leg up and icing regularly I was able to get into my X-Box 360 and Oblivion which is what I've been doing pretty much since. I've been putting in 12 to 18 hours a day on this thing if you can believe it. Yesterday I was able to move around a bit without crutches as well as today. Head clear, very little pain unless on my leg a lot, otherwise doing just fine.

Here is a photo of my leg and its 25 staples the day after surgery when I got home. 19 down the middle and then ones on the sides and one at the top that can't be seen in this photo. If you look closely you can see the word YES as I had to write "yes" on one knee and "no" on the other with a marker.

So I will continue to heal up and will be getting the staples out on the 3rd. Then 4 weeks from the operation date I start Physio and then I will see when I can start weight lifting lightly. I've got the urge to get back at things as believe it or not, from the time I started preparing for this and cutting back meals and then after surgery, I've lost between 10 to 15 lbs so am around 183 lbs now. Plus not using my leg and constantly adjusting the straps on this Donjoy Brace and comparing my leg size, it has shrunk in this short period of time.

I also thought I'd mention that for the first two days after the surgery I had no drugs. I then took medication for 10 days and stopped Christmas day. I had pains but I could manage them and as long as my leg was up and not moving it felt not too bad. I still feel pains but I've been living with pains so no problem. Physio ... I'll let you know then if I can live with the pain.

_________________________"IF I COME ... I'M BRINGING THE PAIN WITH ME"

Saturday 23rd Dec. Went to the gym I used to be a member at for a one off session. Took advantage of access to some heavy dumbells for incline press, did some seated low cable rows, then pyramided up to 300kgx3 on their plate loaded leg press! This is the heaviest I have leg pressed for about half a decade, and I was very happy (and a touch dizzy). Stoked up by this I did a nice superset of upright row with dumbell shrug, then finished off with low cabel curl/high cable pushdown supersets. Nice.

Christmas Day: Between opening presents and a champagne breakfast I managed to run off my hangover and do some push ups and chin ups over at the kids playpark- very 'Rocky'

26th-29th are just a haze of booze and chocolate.

30th- the circuit from the 20th December x5 (extra one due to guilt for previous days excesses)

New Years Eve: back to work during day. Saw in the New Year in style in the evening.

New Years Day: Didnt get to bed till 5am, and was at work on nights this evening, so just slept through

Staples removed yesterday. Walking without crutches for the past 4 days and getting better. Starting physio in a week and am already a head of the game for recovery. After starting physio I will gauge how I am feeling and then lightly get back into weight lifting. Very anxious to get back at things but won't push it.

_________________________"IF I COME ... I'M BRINGING THE PAIN WITH ME"

Jan 5th: was going to go to the gym, but darn it, I am just enjoying the peace and quiet of my garage too much to face the sweating hords of those with new year resolve. Same workout as Jan 2nd and 3rd.

32 days since my surgery and I'm getting antsy plus I can feel my stress levels going up as weight lifting and martial arts calmed me.

I've been walking around without crutches since after Christmas plus have not taken any medication since Christmas Day. Some discomfort for sure but nothing I'm not used to. Start physical therapy on Friday afternoon and am looking forward to my leg getting back to normal. Wearing a fulltime DonJoy brace and the only time I take it off is to shower in the mornings so looking forward to losing this soon.

My neck that I injured in 2004/2005 has been really bothering me in the last week and a bit; more so then normal. I believe that weight lifting helped to make it stronger and now without this strength training those terrible aches and pains are working their way back. After my physio appointment I am going to see if I can start back lightly with weight lifting on Monday. I will have to modify many things as I cannot stand and do certain lifts nor can I put any pressure on my leg of that magnitude yet. It will be modify and adapt for the first while but anything is better then sitting around idle.

Don't worry, I won't push it and will stop if I feel anything but I'm going stir crazy and the X-Box 360 can't seem to fill all of the voids I have.

I've lost a total of 15 pounds since a week before my surgery where I started to reduce the number of meals I was eating and the amount of each meal. I'm 180 lbs and just don't feel like myself. Some friends jokingly said that happens when you get off the juice.

_________________________"IF I COME ... I'M BRINGING THE PAIN WITH ME"

i should think that some pulldowns, bench, and seated press/shrugs wouldnt be out of the question now, providing you can sit in such a manner as to not put pressure throught the knees. See how you go buddy